About the High School Huddle

Welcome to the Citizen-Times' constantly-updated blog for Western North Carolina high school sports. Features include breaking news, scores and stats, college recruiting updates and live blogs from some of the marquee games in WNC. Readers are encouraged to comment on posts, but personal attacks on current athletes, coaches and their families will not be tolerated and are subject to edit or removal at the moderator's discretion.

Madison junior Cheyenne Bunner dresses in a different locker room before and after games.

But otherwise, she receives no special treatment.

Bunner is just another player for the greatest football team in her high school’s history, and she would not want it any other way.

Now in her third year as a varsity kicker, Bunner hopes to get plenty of opportunities for the Patriots (13-1) in tonight’s 2-A Western Regional game at East Lincoln (14-0).

Kickoff is set for 7:30.

“Everyone here at Madison is used to it by now,” Bunner said.

“But it’s interesting to see the other team’s reaction when they don’t know we have a girl on our team. It’s surprising to them. They don’t know what to do when they see a ponytail sticking out of my helmet.”

The Patriots have smashed their previous record for single-season wins (seven) and along the way have done their part to protect Bunner from injury in a violent, full-contact sport.

Sophomore Ryan Horrell handles kickoffs and will step in to attempt long-range field goals.

But there is no individual at Madison, male or female, who is better than Bunner at what she does.

Bunner has hit 14 of her last 15 extra-point attempts and connected on all four tries in last week’s 28-21 win over Shelby to continue the deepest state playoff run in school history. Bunner’s longest field goal in a game has been from 28 yards away.

“I get butterflies every time I go out there,” Bunner said.

“I’d be worried if I wasn’t nervous. But I always seem to do better under pressure.”

Bunner also plays soccer and basketball at Madison, and said the latter is her favorite sport since she belongs to the WNC Lady Royals AAU club in the offseason.

While in middle school, Bunner struck up a conversation with a Madison coach about her soccer career and later followed his advice to come out for the football team.

She began her freshman season at the junior-varsity level, but eventually got to dress out for the varsity team later that same year.

“We all treat Cheyenne just like she’s part of the family,” Patriots junior quarterback Tyler Rogers said.

“You never hear any vulgar language around her or guys trying to pick on her. Cheyenne is a great person and a great kicker who has come through in the clutch for us. Everyone on this team is just like my brother and it’s the same with her. She’s just like my sister.”

Bunner said she is thankful for her holder, Cory Kent, the linemen who block for kick attempts and Patriots coach Mark Gosnell.

“Coach Gosnell gave me a shot when he didn’t have to,” Bunner said.

“I imagine there are other football coaches out there who never would have let a girl play, but he did. I can’t say thank you enough.”

Mountain Heritage senior center/forward Brianna Woody has signed to play college basketball for North Greenville (S.C.).

As a junior, Woody was named the Western Highlands Conference Player of the Year after averaging 12.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game for the WHC champion Cougars. Woody was also the WHC tournament’s most valuable player.

Swain County had a good idea what it was getting when a quarterback transferred in from a nearby Smoky Mountain Conference school.

Raymius Smith has gone above and beyond those expectations.

Smith (2,270 yards and 37 touchdowns with seven interceptions) is just the second player in school history to pass for more than 2,000 yards in a season. The other is Heath Shuler (3,625 yards in 1990), who went on to star in college at Tennessee and become an NFL draft pick.

Furthermore, Smith and the rest of the Maroon Devils (14-0) can tie their record for single-season victories with a win in Friday’s 1-AA Western Regional championship game over visiting Monroe (11-3).

“It’s been a little easy sometimes (to run the offense) and hard at times, too,” Smith said.

“I still think I can do better. I have a great offensive line and running backs. I give all the credit to them.”

Smith was no novice signal-caller when he came to Swain County from Cherokee in the middle of last school year.

As a sophomore, Smith established a Braves record for single-season passing (1,526 yards) even though his team went 3-8 and winless in the SMC.

Smith did it with plenty of help from Greg Tisho (1,040 yards), a senior who has split his high school career between Cherokee and Swain County. The two have been reunited this fall in Bryson City with Tisho (50 receptions for 1,119 yards and 17 touchdowns) enjoying another 1,000-yard season.

Statistically-speaking, fellow senior Matthew Maennle (60 receptions for 1,150 yards and 21 touchdowns) is also having the best season of his career. Both he and Tisho caught touchdown passes from Smith in last week’s 55-24 win over Hendersonville.

Prior to this fall, Shuler’s younger brother, Benjie, was the only 1,000-yard receiver that Swain County had ever produced.

The Maroon Devils have been running the veer offense for decades and saw no reason to break tradition with a new quarterback.

In fact, offensive coordinator Jeff Marr said that he allows Smith to call his own audibles.

Murphy (12-2) returns to the scene of last year’s 1-A Western Regional championship football game tonight when the Bulldogs make the 270-mile trek to Albemarle (13-1).

Kickoff is set for 7:30.

Murphy had to go to overtime to outlast Albemarle in 2011 (by a 42-41 score), a week before giving Western North Carolina’s winningest all-time coach, David Gentry (332 career victories), his fifth state title at N.C. State.

“We’re going to have to go down there and play a real good football game. But I think we have a chance,” Gentry said.

“I think it’s a positive that a lot of our kids have been down there before so it’s not a new environment for them. I think we’ll give a good effort and I think it’s going to be a good game.”

Posey was the 2011 NCHSAA 1-A championship game’s most valuable player after having a hand in all three touchdowns as the Bulldogs beat Jones, 21-6, in Raleigh.

So the size of tonight’s stage and the opponent are not intimidating to players like Posey.

“We feel pretty confident, especially if we all play hard,” he said.

“Defensively, we’re better than we were (in 2011). And offensively, we have a lot more weapons.”

That arsenal includes first-year starting quarterback Michael Curry (948 yards and 14 touchdowns with four interceptions), who is on the verge of becoming a 1,000-yard passer with Brice McKeon (24 receptions for 543 yards and 10 touchdowns) as his top receiving option.

Statistics are due each Wednesday by 3 p.m. and will be published both here on the HS Huddle blog and in the paper. You may also send full spreadsheets, or if you use a MaxPreps page, please inform us of that.

Stats may be e-mailed to apearson@citizen-times.com or faxed to 251-0585. Please do not hesitate to call me with any questions at 232-5863.

Ramsey was hired to coach the Black Hawks back in June. She had been the head coach at North Iredell since 2006 and led that school to appearances in the 3-A Western Regional championship game in 2010 and 2011. She has been named the Statesville Record & Landmark’s Coach of the Year the past three seasons and led the Raiders to a 21-6 record last winter.

North Buncombe went 11-15 last winter under former coach Robby Parker.

Rarely will anyone find the Madison senior standing on the sidelines, whether the Patriots (13-1) are on offense, defense or special teams.

As a result, Hilemon leads the team in tackles (8.8 per game) and ranks second in rushing (1,118 yards, 13 touchdowns). He rumbled for a career-high 200 yards in Friday’s 28-21 win over Shelby in the third round of the NCHSAA 2-A playoffs, making Hilemon the latest Citizen-Times/Western North Carolina Player of the Week.

“I pretty much play the whole game,” Hilemon said.

“During the game, your adrenaline gets going and it’s not so bad. I don’t really pay attention to (the fatigue) until I get home. And then it hits me like a ton of bricks.”

Hilemon was an All-Western Highlands Conference linebacker as a junior, but the 6-foot, 200-pound ironman has been counted on for even more this season.

Clearly, that’s been a good thing for the Patriots, who travel to undefeated East Lincoln (14-0) on Friday for the 2-A Western Regional championship game.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Hilemon and Madison have not only won six more games than any other previous team at the Western Highlands Conference school, but collected its first three playoff wins.

Hilemon is a four-year starter, meaning he has been part of 25 wins in the past four years.

“You couldn’t have asked for a better kid to start building this program with,” Madison coach Mark Gosnell said.

“Deryck is our field general out there. He knows the game about as good as we do as coaches. He’s going to be greatly missed next year. I guaranteee you that.”

Hilemon said he hopes to play college football and is open to playing either offense or defense at the next level.

Smoky Mountain’s boys are going to have to grow up fast to win a fifth straight Western North Carolina Athletic Conference regular-season championship.

Tuesday night could only be deemed a successful learning experience for a basketball team with just two returning starters and a freshman point guard.

Zechariah Carter led five Mustangs in double figures with 26 points in a 83-78 win at defending Co-Mountain Athletic Conference 3-A champion Enka.

Carter, a junior who missed last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, had 20 of his points by halftime Tuesday for Smoky Mountain (1-0). Mark Thompson added 20 points, Cal Raleigh chipped in 15 and Jordan Couch and Jayce Wolfe had 10 apiece.

“Tonight was a lot of fun, just getting back out there meant a lot to me,” said Carter, who is the younger brother of former Mustangs standout Micah Carter.

“We’ve got a great coach (Jimmy Cleaveland) who puts us in the right position to win. Everyone has the right attitude right now. We’ve just got to keep working hard.”

Couch and Thompson are the only players who logged significant minutes for last season’s 20-4 team.

But the Mustangs had no trouble jumping out to a 45-30 halftime lead on Tuesday. And they were able to hold on after the deficit was trimmed to as few as four points in the fourth quarter.

Drake Wells poured in a game-high 31 points for the Jets (0-1) and hit a layup with 41 seconds to go to make the score, 79-75, but Enka could get no closer. Cole Anderson added 16 points and Chase McAdoo had 15.

“We’re a young team and we’ve still got a lot of work to do,” Couch said.

“But I think we’re only going to get better.”

Raleigh is the son of former Tennessee and Western Carolina University baseball coach Todd Raleigh and just a sophomore. So is Zeb Speir, who also briefly appeared in Tuesday’s game. Speir’s father, Mark, is the football coach at WCU.